


Baked With Love and Pride

by Humansunshine



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pride, Pride Month 2018, queer solidarity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 09:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14829624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Humansunshine/pseuds/Humansunshine
Summary: Benjamin Underhill likes baking to destress. When Pride comes around, he bakes flag cupcakes for the institute to raise money for a homeless shelter in the city.





	Baked With Love and Pride

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not even an Underhill stan I just... cooked this up AYYYYY
> 
> Also Raj never did that shitty sabotage thing in 3x02

Being a shadowhunter was a stressful job at the best of times. And being head of security at an institute that frequently operated off protocol was… Worse. In the first few months working under Alec Lightwood, Benjamin Underhill had been close to ripping all his hair out. It was nice, being in an institute where he could be open, but… Did New York ever catch a break? 

It got to the point where he had an anxiety attack over a bunch of paperwork, and he found himself asking Alec for a couple of days off. Luckily, they were between Earth-ending crises, so Alec was all too happy to grant it.

“Go hiking, bake a cake, watch a shitty cop show. Just go relax, Ben. We’ll manage without you for a few days.” Alec had promised, patting him on the shoulder. “Actually, there’s this nice cafe just opened in Soho, lots of cute guys hanging around there. Maybe check that out!”

Benjamin really hadn’t meant to take Alec’s advice literally, but he’d been grocery shopping (chocolate. He’d been buying chocolate.) and noticed that there was a Great British Bake Off recipe book on offer, and he’d picked it up. His ex had been really into Paul Hollywood, and Benjamin figured it could be nice making his own dessert for once. After that first lemon drizzle cake, he was hooked. 

The other shadowhunters stopped referring to him as ‘the other gay one’ and started referring to him as ‘the one who bakes’, because he started bringing sweet treats to work every Monday. It was good for morale, and it kept him sane and centered. Everybody won. Alec always took a little tupperware box home for Magnus and Maryse, and Clary always wrapped an extra piece in a napkin for Luke. 

When Pride season rolled around, Underhill had a great idea. He’d noticed on his patrols that more and more homeless shelters had started popping up in Brooklyn and Queens, including one for LGBTQ youth. It would be nice to raise some money for them, he thought, and decided to sell cupcakes at the institute. He brought it up with Alec at the next Lightwood-Bane next dinner party.

“They wouldn’t be extortionate,” Benjamin explained, smoothing his napkin over his lap, “just a dollar or something.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea.” Magnus insisted, topping up everyone’s glasses. “You could ice them in different pride flags.” 

“Ooooh, I like that,” Alec nodded. “Raise some awareness about different groups while giving them something tasty. Yeah, you should do that. You want some help?”

Benjamin and Magnus gave each other a foreboding look, and Maia giggled, leaning into Alec’s shoulder. 

“No-one wants to eat your cooking, sweetie.” She told him, and Simon shushed her, his cheeks pink. 

“She’s not wrong, though.” Benjamin shrugged, and Alec’s mouth dropped open. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So this one is…?” Izzy asked, pointing at the cupcake in the middle. 

“The lesbian flag,” Underhill answered, and Izzy shrugged, plucking it out of the box.

“I’ll take it for Clary. It’s the prettiest one too, figures. Which one is the bisexual one?” 

Underhill picked the pink, purple and blue cupcake and handed it to her. “There you go. Two dollars in the pot, if you don’t mind.” 

“I’ll just put in five. I’ll be back for more later anyway,” Izzy winked, “I hope they taste as good as they look!” 

“Have you ever known me to make anything that didn’t taste good, Iz?” He asked, putting the box of cupcakes down on his desk. 

Izzy laughed. “There was the peanut butter macaron incident…”

“I thought I told Magnus to wipe everyone’s memory of those,” Benjamin mock-grumbled, and Izzy nudged him in the ribs playfully. “See ya.” 

Izzy waved over her shoulder as she headed back to work, and Alec popped his head round the door.

“Hey, how’s it going? Sell many?” 

“First box is empty,” Benjamin waved the cardboard before dropping it next to his desk. “You here for cake or business?” 

Alec shrugged. “I can be here for both.” 

“Hmmm.” Benjamin smirked, holding out a rainbow cupcake to him. “Dollar in the pot.” 

“You got those mundane witness reports?” Alec’s words were muffled around a mouthful of cake, and Benjamin wrinkled his nose.

“You have terrible manners when Magnus isn’t around.” 

“I don’t have to impress you, I’m your boss.” Alec pointed out, swallowing his mouthful of cake and sticking out his tongue. 

“For now,” Benjamin teased, wiggling his eyebrows. “Maybe I’ll report you to the Clave for inappropriate use of runes.” 

“I knew that story would come back to bite me in the ass,” Alec groaned, dropping two dollars into the pot and grabbing a second cupcake. “I’m never drinking around you again.”

Benjamin laughed, and handed Alec the stack of reports. “You say that every week.”

“Oh, you’re busy.” 

Alec and Benjamin both looked up to see Raj turning away, and Benjamin stood up, clearing his throat. 

“No, not at all. Come in, Raj.” Benjamin insisted, and Alec raised his eyebrows. 

“I’ll see you later, Ben.” Alec said, mouthing ‘oh my god what?!’ behind Raj’s back as he went. 

Raj smiled slightly, taking his hands out of his pockets as he reached Benjamin’s desk. “I uh, I need more blank mission report forms, Sir. I forgot to copy my last one.” 

“Oh, right,” Benjamin nodded, opening the top drawer of his desk and rifling through for the right stack of forms. “No problem.” When he looked back up, Raj was leaning over slightly, looking at the colourful cupcakes. “You want one? They’re to raise money for some homeless shelters.” 

“You did the pansexual flag,” Raj noted, picking that one out of the box. “That’s nice.”

Benjamin hoped he didn’t look as surprised as he felt. “Oh, yeah. Of course. I tried to be as inclusive as possible.” 

“It’s appreciated. I feel included.” Raj replied, dropping a dollar into the pot on the edge of Benjamin’s desk. 

“Well… I’m glad.” Benjamin cleared his throat, holding out the blank forms. 

“You planning on going to pride?” 

“Uhh…”

“I thought about asking Lightwood if I could tag along with him, but I don’t think he likes me much, so…”

“You should come with me.” Benjamin insisted, “us, I mean. We’re going as a group. But you can come. As my… Plus one?”

“Yeah?” Raj grinned, rocking back on his heels a little. “Cool.”

“I’ll call you?” Benjamin asked tentatively.

Raj nodded. “Yes you will,” he hummed, licking at the pansexual coloured icing and wandering out of the room. 

Benjamin waited for a long moment, and exhaled slowly. He plucked a rainbow cupcake out of the box and shoved it in his mouth.

“Happy pride to me.” He muttered, staring at his open doorway.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts are open for pride month!


End file.
